ISSUE-25: Should we deprecate (RDF 2004) reification of statements?

Deprecate Reification

Should we deprecate (RDF 2004) reification of statements?

The RDF 1999 and 2004 Recommendations include vocabulary and syntax
(in RDF/XML) for RDF "reification" of RDF statements themselves. The
vocabulary is rdf:Statement, rdf:subject, rdf:predicate, and
rdf:object; the syntax is rdf:ID used on a property element.

Although this feature is sometimes used in practice, some experts
advise data providers to avoid it. It has no syntactic support in
RDFa or Turtle. Should the WG align with this advice and say this
feature is only to be use for backward compatibility? (That is,
RDF/XML parsers must continue to support the syntax, and libraries
should allow applications to use the features to interoperate with
legacy RDF systems.)

Note that many or all of the use cases of reification are also uses
cases for [GRAPHS]. The decision about the fate of reificiation is
connected with what happens with [GRAPHS].

Related notes:

RESOLVED to close ISSUE-25 by saying that this WG will not deprecate reification of statements. We will note informatively in the RDF Schema spec that named graphs and RDF datasets are another mechanism to accomplish the same goals. link